Tour de France: Luke Rowe 'hit a wall' on the first big climb of stage 11 before missing time cut
The Welshman had been feeling good for the first part of the stage, working hard for his team but his form didn't last
Luke Rowe said he "hit a wall" on the first big climb of stage 11 of the Tour de France 2021, despite feeling good early on in the stage.
The Welshman was riding on the front of the peloton and held his own on the early climbs but the first major ascent of the day saw the start of his struggles. The Ineos Grenadiers rider got to the finish in Malaucène around five minutes after the time cut, making him the only rider to miss it.
Speaking in a video put out by his team before heading to the airport, Rowe spoke of his disappointment in leaving the race.
>>> Watch: Mark Cavendish tips his helmet to Tom Simpson as he battles Mont Ventoux
"It’s a cruel sport and that’s the reality of it sometimes," Rowe said. "It was a solid start, there were a lot of attacks to go into the breakaway. Felt alright throughout the day, as moves were going guys were getting dropped and I felt like I held my own a little bit in the early stages."
The stage's main breakaway took a long time to get away with riders struggling on the early climbs and creating a grupetto very early on. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) held on from the break to take the stage win, despite Ineos working hard in the peloton.
"The plan from the outset was to try and take it on," Rowe continued. "First time we’ve done that in this race to take it on and try and go for the stage or try and move up in the GC.
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"We didn’t get the stage but ‘Billy’ [Richard Carapaz] ended up moving up a place in GC. So I started to ride like I’ve done 100 times before.
"At that point, I was feeling okay, felt solid and we hit the early slopes of the first big categorised climb and it was like I hit the wall. The lights went out. Just like someone had flicked a switch."
The first major climb of the day was the category one climb of the Col de la Liguière, just under 10km at an average gradient of 6.4 per cent, a tough test ahead of two ascents of Mont Ventoux, especially after riding on the front for the whole first part of the stage.
Rowe added: "Guys who I, to be honest, would usually out-climb relatively easily were leaving me for dead. Over 100km to go and I was on my own.
"I never lost the belief that I could arrive at the finish within the time limit but I missed it by five minutes or so. Just gutted really. It’s tough and it’s the first time in my career that I’ve missed the time cut. What a race to do it in."
Rowe is not the first rider to leave the race from missing the time cut; Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) and Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels) were both unable to make the time cut on stage nine to the summit finish in Tignes.
"So it’s gutting. It’s going to be hard to just be leaving the guys really," Rowe said. "Leaving it down to the seven boys and leaving them with me buggering off home. It’s tough but I think I’m leaving them in a good place.
"We moved up into fourth in the GC today so the Tour is a long way from being over."
We’re gonna miss him. Here’s @LukeRowe1990’s honest account of a brutal day at the Tour.He’ll be back 👊 #TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/Wmb5o3Sjg5July 7, 2021
Carapaz did move up to fourth but he is still 5-33 behind yellow jersey, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). However, the Slovenian race leader did show a small crack on the final ascent of Mont Ventoux where Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) managed to drop him, but the descent saved him and the top four, including Rigoberto Urán (EF-Nippo) came to the line together.
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Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
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